Knockdown closets

ABSTRACT

A knockdown closet composed primarily of bodies of relatively rigid sheet material which are suitably scored so that they can be folded. The largest body of sheet material forms the rear and side walls of the closet as well as a swingable front wall which acts as a door. Upper and lower bodies of sheet material respectively form the upper and lower walls of the closet and are releasably fastened to the first body at its upper and lower ends. A releasable holding device serves to releasably hold the door in its closed position. Brackets extend into the closet next to the sidewalls at the region of the upper ends thereof, and a hangar rod extends between and is carried by these brackets. With respect to a horizontal plane situated midway between the upper and lower ends of the assembly of the bodies of sheet material, the entire structure is symmetrical so that it can be inverted to change the door from a right-hand door to a left-hand door.

United States" Patent [72] lnventors llarryStone Forest Hills; Sol Stone, Hewlett, N.Y [2|] AppLNo. 823,091 [22] Filed May8,l969 [45] Patented Apr. 27, 1971 [73] Assignee Roseth Corporation [54] KNOCKDOWN CLOSETS 6Claims,7DrawingFigs.

[52] U.S.Cl 3l2/257R, 312/259 [51] lnt.Cl A47b43/00, A47b47/00 [50] FieldolSearch 312/257, 258, 5, 259, 6, 263, 31.08, 264, 108, 262, 195, 138, 265, 257 (R,SK,SM); 206/7(A), 46 (FN); 292/246 [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,933,099 10/1933 Dennan (3l2/259UX) 1,943,044 l/l934 Stone 312/259 2,083,114 6/1937 B1echman..... 3l2/259X 2,097,043 10/1937 Reefer A 206/7(A) Pn'mary Examiner-Jordan Franklin Assistant Examiner-George l-l. Krizmanich Attorney-Blum, Moscovitz, Friedman and Kaplan ABSTRACT: A knockdown closet composed primarily of bodies of relatively rigid sheet material which are suitably scored so that they can be folded. The largest body of sheet material forms the rear and side walls of the closet as well as a swingable front wall which acts as a door. Upper and lower bodies of sheet material respectively form the upper and lower walls of the closet and are releasably fastened to the first body at its upper and lower ends. A releasable holding device serves to releasably hold the door in its closed position. Brackets extend into the closet next to the sidewalls at the region of the upper ends thereof, and a hangar rod extends between and is carried by these brackets. With respect to a horizontal plane situated midway between the upper and lower ends of the assembly of the bodies of sheet material, the entire structure is symmetrical so that it can be inverted to change the door from a right-hand door to a left-hand door.

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INVI'JNIHHS HARRY STONE SOL STONE HYv ' A'M'mmms KNOCKDOWN CLOSETS BACKGROUND or THE rNvENTroN The present invention relates to knockdown closets. In particular, the present invention relates to a knockdown closet which can be shipped in a flat condition occupying an extremely small amount of space while at the same time being capable of set up when it is to be used.

Various types of knockdown structures are indeed well known. However, all known types of knockdown structures which may be set up to form various articles of furniture and the like have exceedingly complex assemblies requiring involved instructions in connection with setting up and requiring the parts to occupy a relatively large amount of space even in the knocked down condition of the parts.

Thus, with conventional structures of the general type the costs are undesirably high because of the relatively complex structure of the components and the hardware used in connection therewith, the volume occupied by the knocked down assembly is too great, and considerably inconvenience is involved in setting the-structure up, often requiring the use of special tools, for example.

In addition, the conventional structures are relatively rigid in the manner in which they can be used. For example, where the structure includes a swinging door it is only possible for the door to swing in one direction. This is a considerable in convenience because in many rooms the available space is such that the door must swing in a given direction. This required direction of door swinging cannot always be achieved with conventional structures.

Furthermore, where swingable doors are provided they cannot be reliably maintained in a closed condition while at the same time being readily opened by release of components which can be easily and conveniently manipulated.

In addition, sheet material does not always lend itself to supporting relatively heavy loads.

SUMMARY'OF THE INVENTION It is accordingly a primary object of the present invention to provide a knockdown closet structure which will avoid the above drawbacks.

In particular, it is an object of the present invention to provide a knockdown closet structure which in its knocked down condition is relatively flat and occupies only an extremely small amount of space so that it can be easily readily shipped and handled.

Furthermore, it is an object of the invention to provide a knockdown closet structure which requires only exceedingly simple hardware enabling all of the pans to be assembled together in a simple readily apparent way which does not require the use of any special tools and which can be understood by any person of average intelligence.

Furthermore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a construction of this type which lends itself to a setup according to which the door of the closet is either a right-hand door or a left-hand door.

In addition, it is an object of the present invention to provide a construction of this type which not only can be readily set up but also can be readily knocked down back to its collapsed condition so that it can easily be stored away whenever desired.

In accordance with the invention the knockdown closet includes a first body of sheet material. This-body has upper and lower edges and is provided with vertical score lines so that the body can be folded into condition where it forms a back and sidewalls of a closet with a swingable front wall which acts as a door. Upper and lower bodies of substantially rigid sheet material form upper and lower walls of the closet, and a releasable fastening structure releasably fastens the upper and lower bodies to the first body to form the closet enclosure therewith. Any releasable holding means may be used for releasably holding the door in its closed position. A pair of brackets are carried by the opposed sidewalls at the region of the upper edges and a hanger rod extends between and is removably carried by these brackets. Thus with this simple construction it is possible to provide a knockdown closet which can readily and quickly be set up and which can also be knocked down in a very convenient manner with the entire assembly occupying only an extremely small amount of space in its knocked down condition. Moreover, the hardware which is required by this assembly is simple and inexpensive.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS The invention is illustrated by way of example in the accompanying drawings which form part of this application and in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective elevation of the knockdown closet of the invention shown in its setup condition;

FIG. 2 is an exploded partly fragmentary illustration of the knockdown closet showing the separate components thereof;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary transverse sectional elevation of the upper region of the knockdown closet taken along lines 3-3 in the direction of the arrows;

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary horizontal section at the upper region of the closet taken along line 4-4 of FIG. 3 in the direction of the arrows;

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary horizontal section taken along line 5-5 of FIG. 1 in the direction of the arrows and showing structure for releasably holding the door closed;

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary vertical section taken along line 6-6 of FIG. 2 and illustrating how tabs and flanges are fastened; and

FIG. 7 is a fragmentary side elevation of the structure of FIG. 6 taken along line 7-7 of FIG. 6 in the direction of the arrows.

DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to the drawings, the closet 10 of the invention which is shown in FIG. I includes a relatively upright body 12 of a substantially rigid sheet material such as a heavy cardboard, for example. This body 12 is shown by itself in FIG. 2. The body of the substantially rigid sheet material 12 has an upper edge 14 and a lower edge 16. Between these edges the body 12 is provided with vertically extending score lines 118 so that the body can be folded into the condition most clearly apparent from FIG. 2.

In this folded condition the body IZ-defines a rear closet wall 20, a side closet wall 22, an opposed side closet wall 24, and a front wall 26. This front wall 26 is provided with its own score line 28, shown in dot-dash lines, so that the wall 26 can swing about the fold line 28 to act as a door, the door being illustrated in its open position in phantom lines in FIG. 1. The sidewall 24 terminates at its front edge in an inwardly extending flange 30 which is engaged by and overlaps a free side edge region of the door 26 when the latter is in its closed position.

In addition to the body I2 the assembly of the invention includes an upper body 32 and a lower body 34, both of which are also made of a substantially rigid sheet material which may be of the same material as used for the body 12. The bodies 32 and 34 are identical. Thus, these bodies are formed with score lines 36 enabling flanges 38 to be folded from horizontal wall portions 40 to extend vertically therefrom. The flanges include a pair of opposed flanges 38a and 38b respectively provided with tabs 42 which overlap the remaining flanges 3B to provide each body with an endless flange. As is apparent from FIGS. 6 and 7, and as is indicated at the lower portion of the exploded view of FIG. 2, bendable sheet metal clips 44 are used to fasten the tabs 42 with flanges 38 so as to maintain the upper and lower bodies 32 and 34 in the condition indicated in FIG. 2 until these clips 44 are removed. As may be seen from FIGS. 6 and 7 each clip is of a substantially U-shaped configuration and has at least at one of its legs an inwardly directed tongue 46 which projects into the sheet material in the manner shown in FIG. 6 so as to maintain the upper and lower bodies in the condition indicated in FIG. 2.

Also, each of the bodies 32 and 34 is provided at its opposed sides with a pair of slots 48 passing therethrough in the region of the opposed side flanges 38. A pair of simple brackets 50 have inner downwardly extending portions which pass through the slots 48 into the interior of the closet next to the opposed sidewalls 22 and 24 thereof. Each of the sidewalls 22 and 24 is provided at its upper and lower edges with slightly raised portions 52. The upper portions 52 are received within elongated channel portions 54 defined by the upper regions of the brackets 50. The slightly raised portions 52 provide a convenient surface for the channel portion 54 of each bracket 50. Adjacent its lower edge each bracket 50 is struck inwardly to form a loop 56.

As is apparent from FIGS. 2-4, an elongated hangar rod 58 takes the form of an elongated channel member having an upper web 60 and a pair of side webs 62. The upper web 60 extends beyond the side webs 62 and terminates in a pair of downwardly directed tongues 64. These tongues respectively extend through the inwardly struck loop portions 56 of the bracket 50, so that through this simple construction it becomes possible for the hangar rod 58 to be mounted on the brackets 50 which extend through the slots 48 of the upper body 32 into the interior of the closet in the manner shown most clearly in FIG. 3.

The several flanges of the upper and lower bodies 32 and 34 as well as the body 12 at the region of its upper and lower edges are formed with fastening openings 66. These openings become aligned with each other when the parts are assembled, and as is indicated at the right portion of FIG. 3, suitable wingnut and screw assemblies pass through the aligned openings to maintain the parts releaseably in their assembled condition. Thus, each screw 68 extends through a flanged sleeve 70 which receives a washer 72, and the wingnut 74 serves to maintain the parts releaseably assembled in the condition shown in FIG. 3. This structure forms a means releasably fixing the upper and lower bodies to the rear and opposed sidewalls of the body 12.

It is to be noted that with respect to a horizontal plane midway between the upper and lower edges of the body 12, this body 12 as well as the upper and lower bodies 32 and 34 have a perfectly symmetrical identical arrangement so that it becomes possible, if desired, to invert the entire structure with the body 34 becoming the upper body. This body 34 has the same slots 48 so that the brackets can be mounted at the opposite end of the structure which has been inverted in this way. lt therefore becomes possible to locate the fold line 28 on the left side of the assembly rather than on the right side thereof, as viewed in FIGS. 1 and 2. In this way the door 26 can become a left-hand door rather than a right-hand door. This may be a considerable convenience in locating the entire knockdown closet at a particular location where the best results are achieved when the door swings in a given direction.

A releaseably holding means is provided for releaseably holding the door 26 in its closed position. This releasable holding means includes a pair of knobs 76 fastened to the door 26 at the region of its free side edge in the manner shown most clearly in FIG. 5. Thus, each knob 76 is formed with a threaded bore which receives a screw 78 whose head engages a washer 80 on the inner surface of the swingable door or front wall 26. The sidewall 24 is formed with a pair of openings through which an elongated elastic loop 82 of the releasable holding means extends with a knot 84 thereof situated at the interior of the closet and engaging a washer 86 through which the loop 82 extends to the exterior of the assembly in the manner shown most clearly in FIG. 2. Thus, the loops 82 can be stretched over the knobs 76 in the manner shown in FIGS. 1 and for releaseably holding the door in its closed position. These elastic loops can be easily removed from the knobs 76 so that the door can be released for opening in this way. It will be noted that the loops 82 and knobs 76 are also symmetrically arranged at equal distances above and below a central horizontal plane situated midway between the top and bottom ends of the bod 12, so that when the structure is inverted the releaseable hol ing means of the door will still be fully operative in the manner shown in the drawings and described above.

One of the great advantages of the invention resides in the fact that it becomes economically feasible to provide the body 12 with any desired height so that not only can it have the full scale of a large closet but in addition it may be constructed to a relatively small scale, with the other components having corresponding sizes. This enables the knockdown closet to be used by younger children, for example, so that they can make use of the closet under temporary conditions. Thus, the structure lends itself to use in camps and similar locations such as summer resorts and the like where temporary use of such a structure is required with easy and convenient portability of the assembly in its knocked down condition.

We claim:

1. A knockdown closet comprising a first elongated body of substantially rigid sheet material having opposed top and bottom edges and, extending between said edges, a plurality of parallel score lines along which said 'body is folded into a condition where said body has a rear wall, a pair of opposed sidewalls extending forwardly from said rear wall, and a front wall extending swingably from one of said sidewalls and terminating adjacent the other of the sidewalls to form a door, an upper body of substantially rigid sheet material forming a top wall for the closet and a lower body of substantially rigid sheet material forming a bottom wall for the closet, means releasably fixing said upper and lower bodies to said rear and opposed sidewalls of said first body of sheet material, a pair of brackets carried by said opposed sidewalls at the region of said upper body, and a hangar rod extending between and carried by said brackets in the interior of the closet enclosure formed by said bodies of sheet material, said brackets being respectively in the form of metal plates having upper channel-shaped portions embracing an upper edge of each sidewall and having an inner downwardly extending wall portion, said upper body being formed with opposed slots through which said downwardly extending portions of said brackets extend into the interior of the space between said sidewalls, said downwardly extending portions of said brackets being respectively formed with inwardly directed loops, and said hangar rod being in the form of an elongated channel member having an upper web and downwardly directed sidewalls extending downwardly from said upper web, said upper web extending beyond said sidewalls and terminating in tabs which extend through said loops of said brackets so that said hangar rod can be removably supported by said brackets.

2. The combination of claim 1 and wherein each of said upper and lower bodies have endless flanges overlapping end regions of said first body, and each of said upper and lower bodies having at each corner a flange and tab portion and a springy clip fastening the same together.

3. The combination of claim 1 and wherein a releaseably holding means releaseably holds the front swingable door in a closed position, said releaseably holding means including a doorknob connected to a free edge of said front swingable wall portion and an elastic loop connected to an adjoining sidewall and extending around said knob for releaseably holding the front door in its closed position.

4. The combination of claim 1 and wherein said upper and lower bodies are of an identical construction and said first body has an identical structure at its top and bottom ends so that the entire assembly of said bodies can be inverted to change the door from a right-hand to a left-hand door.

5. The combination of claim 1 and wherein said bottom wall is also formed with slots through which said brackets can extend so that the entire assembly can be inverted to make the door either a right-hand or a left-hand door.

6. The combination of claim 1 and wherein all of said bodies of sheet material are made of a substantially rigid cardboard. 

1. A knockdown closet comprising a first elongated body of substantially rigid sheet material having opposed top and bottom edges and, extending between said edges, a plurality of parallel score lines along which said body is folded into a condition where said body has a rear wall, a pair of opposed sidewalls extending forwardly from said rear wall, and a front wall extending swingably from one of said sidewalls and terminating adjacent the other of the sidewalls to form a door, an upper body of substantially rigid sheet material forming a top wall for the closet and a lower body of substantially rigid sheet material forming a bottom wall for the closet, means releasably fixing said upper and lower bodies to said rear and opposed sidewalls of said first body of sheet material, a pair of brackets carried by said opposed sidewalls at the region of said upper body, and a hangar rod extending between and carried by said brackets in the interior of the closet enclosure formed by said bodies of sheet material, said brackets being respectively in the form of metal plates having upper channel-shaped portions embracing an upper edge of each sidewall and having an inner downwardly extending wall portion, said upper body being formEd with opposed slots through which said downwardly extending portions of said brackets extend into the interior of the space between said sidewalls, said downwardly extending portions of said brackets being respectively formed with inwardly directed loops, and said hangar rod being in the form of an elongated channel member having an upper web and downwardly directed sidewalls extending downwardly from said upper web, said upper web extending beyond said sidewalls and terminating in tabs which extend through said loops of said brackets so that said hangar rod can be removably supported by said brackets.
 2. The combination of claim 1 and wherein each of said upper and lower bodies have endless flanges overlapping end regions of said first body, and each of said upper and lower bodies having at each corner a flange and tab portion and a springy clip fastening the same together.
 3. The combination of claim 1 and wherein a releaseably holding means releaseably holds the front swingable door in a closed position, said releaseably holding means including a doorknob connected to a free edge of said front swingable wall portion and an elastic loop connected to an adjoining sidewall and extending around said knob for releaseably holding the front door in its closed position.
 4. The combination of claim 1 and wherein said upper and lower bodies are of an identical construction and said first body has an identical structure at its top and bottom ends so that the entire assembly of said bodies can be inverted to change the door from a right-hand to a left-hand door.
 5. The combination of claim 1 and wherein said bottom wall is also formed with slots through which said brackets can extend so that the entire assembly can be inverted to make the door either a right-hand or a left-hand door.
 6. The combination of claim 1 and wherein all of said bodies of sheet material are made of a substantially rigid cardboard. 